This project is aimed at developing a better understanding of how the family can simultaneously be the locus of both love and violence, and as such, at contributing to a fuller scientific understanding of the character and nature of both love and violence and their phenomenological connections. It also will provide valuable assistance for those practitioners who work with abused spouses and abusing spouses. Major concerns are: (1) the nature of the emotional relationships, particularly those referred to as involving "love", between partners in the early years of marriage; (2) identification of factors tha strengthen or weaken these emotional ties, that contribute to or detract from feelings of loving or being loved; (3) beliefs about the causes, meaning, and seriousness of interspousal violence per se, and relative to other "negative behaviors" and interactions; (4) the relative importance of violence and other factors in strengthening or weakening emotional ties and perceptions of being loved for those who have actually experienced incidents of interspousal violence; and (5) alternative interpretations or meanings of actual incidents of interpersonal violence for persons with varying levels of emotional commitment. This is an exploratory study, based on focussed, in-depth interviews with 100 respondents (50 male, 50 female), married five years or less. The interview guide will consist of a list of topics and aspects of questions to be utilized during the interviews. The time, order, and degree of attention paid to each dimension, however, may vary according to the interviewer's discretion. Probes will be employed to elicit motives, meanings, and unanticipated relationships. Interveiws will be tape-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed by the PI in terms of several theoretical perspectives.